Veganic gardening tips: Dealing with ‘pests’ — continued

Protect your garden from unwanted critters, the vegan way By Piers Warren

Last month, we looked at how to create high biodiversity in your kitchen garden so that pests are kept in check naturally. Now, we will look at barriers to keep pests away from your crops, relocation (removing pests from your plot) and companion planting.

Barriers

In some cases, you may need to create barriers to prevent other animals getting to your crops. Examples are:

• Fencing to keep rabbits off the allotment

• Fruit cages to keep birds off soft fruits like berries and currants

• Netting over cane or pipe structures to keep pigeons and butterflies off brassicas

• Horticultural fleece or mesh to prevent small pests like flea beetles or carrot root fly (as well as butterflies and larger pests)

• Barriers to deter snails and slugs such as soot, ash, human hair, or copper strips around raised beds and pots

• Cloches to protect crops — plastic bottles cut in half and placed over individual young brassicas or squashes, for example.

Relocation

Occasionally you may find you need to supplement your other protection methods by relocating a few repeat offenders! This is especially relevant for slugs and snails. In this case, relocating means gathering them up in a bucket or lidded container and taking them at least 100 metres away; snails are homing creatures so lobbing them over the garden fence certainly won’t work!

The best time to collect molluscs is at dusk, after rain and during the spring. Ideally wear a head torch, hold the container in one hand and gently pick the snails off with the other as you move around your plot. You will find a large pair of tweezers or an old spoon will help with the slugs as their slime is particularly slippery (and difficult to wash off your fingers afterwards). You may be surprised at the large number you collect at first, but after a few days the numbers will decrease. Relocate them somewhere like a park, woodland edge or hedgerow, away from other people’s gardens. You may find this nightly activity surprisingly addictive, and it’s a great opportunity to experience other nightlife on your plot, such as bats, foxes and owls.

Another method is to collect them during the day by finding out where they hide away. Common places are under pots/tubs, around the rims of plant pots and under pieces of wood.

Companion planting

Pest control can also be enhanced by using companion planting: using specific plants amongst your crops for their benefit. Examples include:

• Sacrificial plants such as nasturtiums that are susceptible to blackfly attack. These will in turn attract the ladybirds, hoverflies and other predators which will control the aphids on your crops as well. They will also attract white butterflies away from your brassicas.

• Flowering plants that attract beneficial insects like hoverflies and other pollinators, such as lavender, thyme and poached egg plants.

• Mint which deters flea beetles.

• Onions and other alliums growing amongst carrots will deter carrot root fly.

• Strong smelling herbs like mint, chives, basil and thyme can deter aphids.

• French marigolds can deter whitefly.

Piers Warren is the co-author (with his daughter, Ella Bee Glendining) of The Vegan Cook & Gardener: Growing, Storing and Cooking Delicious Healthy Food all Year Round available from veganorganic.net